What a feel-good story this is: the most beloved son of the Syracuse basketball family, after finding success elsewhere, returns home in attempt to lead his alma mater back to prominence.
The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball program has hired Gerry McNamara as its ninth head coach in program history. McNamara is set to lead Syracuse into its 127th season and beyond. It’s an enchanting hire.
“I love this place. I love what Syracuse means: to the fans, to the players who have worn this jersey, to the people
of Central New York. This program has given me everything, and I am ready to give everything back to it,” McNamara said in a release upon his hiring. “College basketball has changed. How you build a program, recruit talent, compete for resources and win looks different than it did even five years ago. I know that. I’m ready for it. What hasn’t changed is what Orange Nation expects, and what this place deserves. We are going to build something special here.”
The storylines are abundant and a full circle moment has emerged. McNamara is set up to coach the son of his teammate on the National Championship team and Syracuse’s most decorated basketball alumnus. If McNamara can lead Syracuse back to the NCAA Tournament with Kiyan Anthony it would be one heck of a story, even for a program as historic as Syracuse.
Syracuse also pursued head coaching options in St. Louis’s Josh Schertz, Standford’s Kyle Smith and then-USF coach Bryan Hodgson, a more responsible approach to explore all options this hiring cycle. The job eventually went to McNamara. That has to motivate the former Orange star, who was passed over the first time around following Jim Boeheim’s retirement. McNamara’s success at Siena ended up being of great convenience to Syracuse.
McNamara accomplished quite a bit in his short stint at Siena — a MAAC Tournament Championship in year two followed by an NCAA Tournament appearance. He coached the most competitive performance against Duke by a Syracuse alum since 2019.
Now comes the hard part: Syracuse cannot afford to let McNamara suffer the same fate as Adrian Autry — another esteemed member of the basketball family who was ousted after three seasons due to a lack of on-court success. There were gaps in Autry’s coaching acumen, and there were also gaps in Syracuse’s resources.
Syracuse is reportedly working on securing $9.0 million for basketball in 2026-27, with $4.5 coming from the athletic department’s revenue share. The revenue share cap for all sports increases 4% in 2026-27 to $21.32MM. Syracuse is hopeful the $9MM figure will be in the top-third of the ACC. But if Syracuse was middle of the ACC pack with just under $8MM this season, is an additional one million really enough to get into the top third of the conference? Keep in mind we’re going off of last year’s numbers. Each year is an ante up.
If the remaining $4.5MM is coming from third-party NIL, and with Syracuse expected to return to the Players Era Tournament for $1MM of that, is $3.5MM the best Syracuse boosters can do? If that’s the maximum Syracuse can do for its most beloved basketball alum, what would it be able to conjure up for an outside hire? Perhaps a GoFundMe-style crowdsourcing campaign would help. Syracuse has gone to its massive fanbase hat in hand with the ask for more support. These are the times we’re in, and it’s accountable of Syracuse to leave no stone unturned.
Retail dollars are all well and good, but the real money — institutional cash — still remains. Hello, Micron? Of your $100 billion commitment to Central New York, would you be willing to peel off a few million for our basketball team? We have jersey patches and gate-names for sale.
There is still some price discovery in college basketball to identify where the value lies. The moneyballification of roster construction is making it way into college sports. The bottom line? The more resources teams have at their disposal, the better. Pointing out exceptions to the obvious is both boring and a waste of time. How do you win in college basketball? You get good players. How do you get good players? You pay them at or above market rate.
Coaching still matters, relationships still matter and so too does talent development and retention. Those will all play as much or more of a factor at Syracuse than other Power Four programs. But modern day players don’t choose programs based on conference affiliation, program history, what arena teams play in or what television network is airing the games. By and large, high-level players choose where they can get paid the most, get playing time and have the best path to get to the next level.
Questions about McNamara’s Xs and Os in modern basketball, analytics, staff and what kind of talent he’ll be able to bring in are worth both acknowledgement and also abstaining from further discussion, for now.
McNamara has only given Syracuse everything — both metaphorical and literal blood, sweat and tears. He gave his loyalty and servitude as a graduate assistant all the way up to assistant and associate head coach. Is there any reason to believe he wouldn’t do the same as Syracuse’s head coach? You won’t find a soul in Syracuse that has a bad thing to say about McNamara. Ever the competitor, there’s zero question the steely-eyed coach has the ability motivate and get the most out of his players. There will be no communication breakdowns. Dialogue from McNamara will be clear, concise and direct.
Syracuse’s hiring of McNamara was a return of loyalty and a show of faith. Faith that he can out-coach, do more with less and return the Syracuse program to where it belongs: in the NCAA Tournament. He did it four times as a player and nine as an assistant at Syracuse.
Hiring McNamara was also a move to keep Syracuse basketball in the family. It is now incumbent upon Syracuse to empower McNamara and equip him with the resources necessary to ensure his hiring was the best move for the Syracuse basketball program.
